Airport Authority of India had been putting its efforts to increase the regional and remote area air connectivity across the country. In this endeavour, AAI is planning to develop a civil enclave on the IAF airfield at Purnia, Bihar. A team of officers from AAI had undertaken site visit to the air force station, Purnia recently. At present, the station has runway suitable for wide bodied aircrafts. The requirement of land for setting up of civil enclave has been assessed by the team and will be taken up with the state government.
Purnia, is located in the North Eastern part of Bihar with a population of nearly five lakhs and is accessible to the northern part of Bengal extending upto Biratnagar in Nepal. Due to its strategic location, the need for setting up of civil enclave for operation of civil flights had been under consideration for the past two decades. The station has only day-time operations. The nearest airport is located at Bagdogra at an aerial distance of 180 kms, which at times, remains inaccessible for air traffic due to bad weather . Since, Purnia is having advantage due to its geographical location on a flat plateau; the operations at this airport shall not be affected by such bad weather.